Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Field Experience: Extended May Term course, 2006

The academic focus of this course was on the history and long-term implications of the military-diplomatic-scientific expedition led by Captains Lewis and Clark up the Missouri River 200 years ago. Our aim was to engage students in investigating a wide range of historical and contemporary questions raised by the historic expedition as well as to involve them in carrying out a critical analysis of how historical and cultural narratives and values are inscribed in contemporary national consciousness and popular memory. We pursued these course goals by engaging with public history sites (museums, monuments, etc.), interacting with professional interpreters of history and culture (museum curators, park guides, local historians, et al) and through integrating readings, discussions and focused assignments before, during and after the "expedition" phase of our Extended May term course. We especially highlighted and sought to integrate the perspectives of contemporary Indian nations at such places as the Akta Lakota Museum in Chamberlain, SD, at the historic sites around Fort Mandan; and associated with the Museum of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara) in New Town, North Dakota. By camping and conducting the field phase of the course outdoors as much as possible, we also tried to remain open to the tremendous inspiration and insight to be derived from the natural world as well as from the evidence of changes wrought on the environment by human beings over the course of the last 10,000 years or so.

This course was taught as an interdisciplinary offering with major credit available to students in both Anthropology and History. Students worked with a significant body of primary sources--Lewis and Clark's journals as well as other related writings.  In addition to being explicitly engaged with about 200 years of historiography informed by accounts of the Lewis and Clark expedition, we also analyzed the different uses made of the historical record by scholars in other disciplines. The instructors helped students to become aware of various sub-genres of historical interpretation and writing, such as diplomatic history, social history, environmental history, biography and regional history.  Sue Myster shared her expertise in the methods of ethnography, archaeology, bioarchaeology, ethno history, and oral history in relation to a variety of sites and situations.  Through assignments carried out prior to leaving campus as well as in the field students had the opportunity to apply these methods and to reflect critically on various scholarly as well as popular ways of creating and disseminating knowledge.

Two hundred years ago English was very minor language in the region where we live. The spot occupied by Hamline’s campus today was located quite literally on the extreme northwestern frontier of the United States. However, in the early years of the nineteenth century, our region became the center of an imperial struggle for control of a continent, a struggle involving the great colonial powers of Europe: Britain, France, Spain, and, with the acquisition of 820,000 square miles of Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, a new contender in the arena of geopolitics, the young republic of the United States, two thirds of whose 5.3 million inhabitants still lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic coast.

The Louisiana Purchase, which President Thomas Jefferson rushed through Congress in April of 1803, doubled the territory of the United States at a cost of about three cents an acre. It also staked the young country’s claim to the western part of the continent. But truly incorporating the territory west of the Mississippi and capitalizing on the theoretical claim established by the treaty with Napoleon Bonaparte required much more practical knowledge about the newly claimed lands than any European powers possessed. In order to chart the unfamiliar territory, and especially to search for a route for river based transportation and communication between the Missouri and the Pacific Ocean, Jefferson proposed—and the Congress approved—the establishment of a military reconnaissance team to survey and map the newly acquired lands and to meet with and report on the Indian tribes living there, as well as to conduct a wide range of scientific observations. The result was the formation of the legendary Corps of Discovery comprising 29 men and led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, which departed from St. Louis, Missouri in April of 1804. The Lewis and Clark expedition was one of the most important and remarkable voyages of exploration in history. In addition to the scientific and geographical discoveries made by the Corps of Discovery (including 178 plant species and 122 animal species and the disappointing realization that there was no feasible water route to the Pacific Northwest, but instead towering ranges of mountains and vast plains and deserts), the undertaking was central to the westward expansion of the U.S. and marked the beginning of the development of our nation as a hemispheric—and later, world--power, with our region (the western Great Lakes, Mississippi and Missouri River systems and the Great Plains) playing a dominant role in the emergence of the U.S. on the world stage.

The vision for this course thus began as an opportunity for students to engage in experiential and interdisciplinary learning focused on a number of interrelated aspects of the historic journey of the Corps of Discovery from 1803 to 1806.

The HP letters we proposed for the course were W, S, G, and o. We also supervised two independent projects in conjunction with the course for which the students carrying them out will receive a Q.

As an extended May course, the "Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Field Experience" course was structured in three parts: 1) a classroom phase of more-or-less traditional lecture-and-discussion format; followed by 2) an interim phase for independent research and preparation for, 3) the field phase during which we took the course on the road (and along the river. During the on-campus phase of the course, students met once a week to hear introductory lectures by the instructors, discuss readings and present preliminary oral assignments, as well as to plan for the logistics of the field course. During the field phase, students participated in a 12-day expedition designed to expose them to some sites and interpretations central to the history we were studying as well as to give them a sense (through the experience of camping and working together as a group) of some of the challenges inherent in voyages of expedition—even when you are traveling in well-known territory with modern technological support. The camping, discomforts and unpredictability of the weather and itinerary were very much envisioned as part of the experiential learning process, at least by the instructors. Judging by the level of complaints about individual comfort, a high level of learning was achieved among the students! (Although perhaps they were not aware of this at the time.) A detailed account of both the on-campus and field portions of our course follows.

These texts are available for purchase in the Hamline University Bookstore and you should purchase them and carry them with you and study them.

Lewis and Clark: Legacies, Memories, and New Perspectives, Edited by Kris Fresonke, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004)

The Lewis and Clark Journals (Abridged Edition), An American Epic of Discovery, Edited by Gary E. Moulton (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003)

Other readings will be available on Blackboard and/or available on Reserve in the Library.

Week 1 meeting; Wednesday, April 5, Initial Course meeting

Overview and Orientation: scope and content of the course, approaches to the subject matter, schedules and logistics, first assignments

The historical context and significance of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Required Reading: Chapter 7, "We are not dealing entirely with the Past: Americans Remember Lewis and Clark," (pp.159-183); and "Introduction to the Bicentennial Edition" and Chapter 1, "The Voyage Begins", in Lewis & Clark among the Indians (pp. xi-xv; 1-26), by James P. Ronda. These readings are available on Reserve in the Bush library; they are also posted as .pdf documents on our Blackboard Course Site (under Course Documents).

Recommended Reading: Chap 1, "The Plains Sioux in an Empire of Liberty", in The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee (pp. 13-39). This chapter is available on reserve in the Bush library, as well as on Blackboard (Course Documents).

Week 3 meeting Saturday (April 22) morning—meet at Fort Snelling State Park (optional hike from Minnehaha Falls Park) for orientation to the changing significance of rivers in the history of the U.S., especially the " West"

Reading: Chapter 2, "Wilderness Aesthetics of Legacies, Memories and New Perspectives (pp. 37-69); and Introduction and Chapter 1 of The Lewis and Clark Journals (May 14-August 24, 1804), pp. xv – 44).

Assignment: 1) Choice of Corps member to "shadow" due by this day; 2) Choose American Indian Nation to research; details of these assignments will be distributed and discussed in class.

History of settlement along the Missouri: historical and archaeological approaches for studying the history of civilizations in the region

Cahokia World Heritage site—an overview

Assignment: In-class reports on Indian Tribes by students (specific details of this assignment will be distributed in class)

Required Reading:

Chapter 5 "Lewis and Clark as Plains Ethnographers", in Lewis & Clark among the Indians (pp. 113-132), by James P. Ronda; and Cahokia: City of the Sun by Cahokia Mounds Museum Society.

These readings are available on Reserve in the Bush library and on Blackboard.

Recommended Reading: Legacies, Memories, and New Perspectives, Chapter 5 "’Twice-Born from the Waters’: The Two-Hundred Year Journey of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Indians"

Focus on Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery

Presentations by students on "their" Corps member

Assignment: Journal Proposals due (details of this assignment will be distributed in class)

Logistical Planning for the trip

PART II: INTERIM PHASE (May 3- May 30); NO CLASS MEETINGS: PERIOD OF INDEPENDENT STUDY AND PREPARATION FOR THE FIELD PHASE OF THE COURSE

Refine Corps Biography to address questions raised in initial presentation

On-going assignment: Read Lewis and Clark Journals

LOGISTICAL PLANNING FOR THE FIELD PORTION OF THE COURSE

In the year preceding the departure of the Corps of Discovery, Meriwether Lewis carried out intensive studies, seeking out the leading American scholars in all the fields of knowledge considered relevant to the success of the expedition. He also oversaw the gathering of the logistical information upon which the expedition would depend (maps, travelers’ accounts, etc.). The work of this committee is to assemble the reference materials (books, articles) as well as maps and guides to the areas we will be visiting. You should not only collect the necessary materials, but also be well versed in their contents.

Throughout the 2+ years of the expedition, Lewis, Clark, and other members of the expedition observed and noted the silent remains of past cultures, as well as the abandoned village and burial sites of historic American Indian communities. These sites were sources of interest and curiosity as the expedition traveled west and had to be considered in light of one of the primary objectives of the trip: to collect, record, and analyze as much information about Native groups as possible. The objective of this committee is to gather reference materials (books, articles, site maps) about the archaeological sites along our route. You should record the period of occupation, the type of site (habitation, mortuary, hunting camp) cultural affiliation, and any other interesting facts about sites we may visit.

Taking into account the nature of our travel and constraints on food preparation, as well as any dietary restrictions and the culinary skills represented among the student participants in the trip, and also taking into account budget restrictions, the challenging job of this committee is to come up with a menu and shopping list and, with the support of the instructors, undertake a shopping trip and organize the food and equipment we will need for the journey. This is unquestionably an important responsibility and one on which the success and harmony of the expedition greatly depend. Some planning of menus can be done during the first week of May; the bulk of the shopping and the organization and packing of the food will be done just prior to our departure from St. Paul on May 30.

Arrive at Hamline at 6:30 am, complete final packing of vans. Leave at 7:00 am. Drive to Effigy Mounds National Monument (about 200 miles). Explore the park and visitor center.

http://www.nps.gov/efmo/

Drive on to Pike’s Peak State Campground. Set up camp.

http://www.iowadnr.com/parks/state_park_list/pikes_peak.html

Break camp and set off early for our long drive (over 400 miles) to Pere Marquette State Park near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers

Morning meeting

Visit Cahokia World Heritage Site

Spend night at Pere Marquette

Suggested Readings: Information about Cahokia is available in the Archaeology Materials file box

Morning meeting focus: background of the presence of the Corps of Discovery expedition in the over the winter of 1803-04.

Activity: drive van(s) to Camp River Dubois Illinois State Park (Hartford, IL) to visit the excellent visitor center devoted to the departure point for the expedition. The focus will be on the geographical, scientific and political context of the expedition. Particular attention will be paid to the reconstructed "Fort Dubois" on the site, which has recreated the winter camp where William Clark and members of the Corps prepared for the journey. Some interpretation will be provided by the staff of the Historic Site.

Study and Reflection: what have we seen—informal sharing of observations and impressions. Focus on the challenges and opportunities of activities and exhibits which seek to "recreate" the past.

After lunch we will drive at least one of the vans to Grafton, where we will rent bikes to ride along the Riverfront trail back into Pere Marquette State Park [about 7 miles along the trail]. This is not merely a recreational activity; the physical engagement with the terrain and environment necessitated by propelling yourself (on your bicycle) along the Mississippi River will hopefully make you more observant and reflective on the human energy required by exploration and travel in other historic periods prior to the advent of the automobile in this area.

Camp: Pere Marquette State Park for the night. Read relevant Journal portions to relate our experience in the area to that of the Corps of Discovery prior to their departure from Camp Dubois up the Missouri.

http://www.mcttrails.org/confluence.html

Break camp. Drive across the river to St. Louis. Visit the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and the Museum of Westward Expansion. Then visit the Museum Exhibit where students will carry out assignments geared to the museum presentation of the history of U.S. westward expansion in general and the Lewis and Clark Expedition in context. Museum Assignment: study the display of "Peace Medals" bestowed on various diplomatic partners among the Indian nations with whom the United States treated between the 17th and the 19th century. Consider the history and ritual meaning involved in this kind of cultural interaction involved in the distribution of medals and then interpret the significance of the fact that Lewis and Clark distributed 32 such medals to the Indian Nations in the course of their journey to the Pacific in 1803-1804.

[Optional visit to adjoining Old Courthouse, which focuses on the role of slavery in Westward expansion, especially in Missouri Territory (Dred Scott case was initiated in this District Courthouse.]

Also visit the sculpture of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the lobby of the Drury Plaza hotel across from the Old Courthouse to talk about contemporary representation of the Expedition (how the Corps in general and Sacagawea and York, in particular) are deployed in popular ‘mythic’ history.

Afternoon: Drive along the Lewis and Clark Trail (Rte 94) from St. Louis to Arrow Rock State Historic Site and Campground. Stop along the way to view the river and note changed environmental and economic/political activities and context of the Lower Missouri.

Camp: Set up camp in the Group camp area of Arrow Rock State Park

Study and Reflection: Informal discussion of observations and interpretations of the territory covered. Discussion of next day’s assignment focused on the Interpretive Center at Arrow Rock.

Presentation on Indian tribes begin with a presentation (by Amy) on the Osage.

Morning Meeting Focus: reports from Museum of Westward Expansion (from day before) and general discussion of what we’ve seen so far. Focus for the day: visit the Arrow Rock State Historic Interpretive center, which can be done independently (preferably in pairs). Assignment (for report back to group later as well as for comment in your journals): find out as much as you can about the history of this place (Arrow Rock on the Missouri). What is the history of the Osage Indians in this place? When did other (European) groups come into the area? Why did they settle here? What were relations like between various imperial powers (Spain, France, U.S., as well as among Indians and between Indians and Europeans). Explain the shifts in economy and politics that explain both historic importance of Arrow Rock as a nineteenth century river town and its decline after the Civil War.

Optional Afternoon excursion [half the class went]: visit Van Meter State Park to see the Oneota (ancestral Missouri) earthworks and consider the presence of the Missouri Indians in the region since 1250 A.D. Also visit nineteenth century cemetery for white settlers within the park.

Camp: overnight at Arrow Rock State Park

Evening presentations on Indian groups continue.

Head for Council Bluffs, IA. Stop at the Jesse James House and Farm site near Liberty, Missouri. Although this stop was not anticipated in the planning for the trip, we decided as a group to take the small detour to visit the site because of the keen interest in the site of one of our group, and indeed, the site did produce valuable insights into life and politics in Missouri during and after the Civil War; it also raised questions of historical interpretation and the difference between popular history, mythic history, regional history. And of course, it reflected on the connection between Jesse James, Missouri, and Minnesota (Northfield!) Drive on to Council Bluffs. Stay at Western Inn (1842 Madison Avenue, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503. This scheduled mid-point stay in a motel will provide an opportunity for trip members to do laundry. It also provided the opportunity for the instructors to read and give initial feedback on students’ journals as well as on the "Peace Medal" essay assignment the students did in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and the Museum of Westward Expansion (for assignment, see June 3, above). [Lewis and Clark related sites in and around Council Bluffs: Western Historic Trails Center (.5 mile south of Interstate 80, exit 1B); Lewis and Clark Monument Park; this park consists of a stone plaza with an outstanding view of the Missouri River and Omaha.]

Cross the river from Council Bluffs to Omaha to visit the Joslyn Art Museum; (2200 Dodge Street, Council Bluffs);

http://www.joslyn.org/

Pay special attention to the "Art of the West" galleries, featuring an outstanding exhibit of paintings by Karl Bodmer done on a trip up the Missouri with Prince Maximilian (1832-1834) using some of Clarks maps and providing rich visual detail on the perspective of a European on the landscape and people of the Missouri River and the Plains. Stop at the Sergeant Floyd monument near Sioux Falls. Continue on to Chamberlain, South Dakota (about 4 hours). Camp at American Creek Campground. Note the links between the town’s fortunes and the demise of river transportation (Chamberlain was the furthest point of steamboat trade in South Dakota. It became a railway head town in the beginning of the railway era. It is also an interesting mix of ethnic communities: Lakota, Mennonite, and other European immigrants, some with very intact ethnic identities. [Sites of interest along the way: Spirit Mound (located on South Dakota 19 north of Vermillion, SD); believed to be the residence of little spirit beings. According to Clark it was a very inspiring view of the surrounding plains (August 25, 1804). This site was recently acquired by the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks. The site was replanted with native grasses to restore it to its 1804 appearance; W. H. Over Museum (1110 Ratingen Street on the U of SD campus, Vermillion, SD); Display cases with several early editions of the Corps’ travel; William Over was involved in numerous excavations in the central and northern plains of Arikara sites. The museum’s Spirit Mound Learning and Information Center provides an American Indian perspective on Spirit Mound.]

Presentation on Indian groups (focus on Lakota tribes) continue around the campfire.

Break camp; visit the Akta Lakota museum which is located on the campus of the St. Joseph’s Indian School just up the road from the campground. The museum presents a Lakota perspective on the history of the Great Plains and the interactions of the peoples we are studying.

www.aktalakota.org

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Drive from Chamberlain to Lake Sakakawea area, North Dakota

Camp at Lake Sakakawea State Park (Ph: 701-487-3315) for the remainder of our trip, June 7 – 11. This drive will take approximately 5 hours.

Lake Sakakawea is one of the country’s largest man-made lakes, 178 miles long. It resulted from the construction of Garrison Dam built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1947 – 1954, which flooded the ancestral homelands (and negotiated reservations) of the Mandan and Hidatsa peoples.

Morning reserved for committee meetings, catching up on journals and exploring the park. Afternoon visits: North Dakota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn. The Center opened in 1997 and presents many exhibits about the expedition; 2) Fort Mandan, a full-sized reconstruction of the fort where Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-05. The reconstruction of the fort is based on descriptions found in the journals of a number of members of the expedition. [Also in the area: Fort Clark Trading Post, consisting of a fur trade post as well as Mandan and Arikara village sites. This site is post-Lewis and Clark, but illustrates consequences of the interaction between native peoples and increasing numbers of non Indian peoples. The villages were decimated by a series of small pox and cholera epidemics during the 1830s and 1850s.]

The last few days will be spent focusing on the tribes that extended hospitality as well as information about the territory ahead to the Corps of Discovery during the winter of 1804-05 the Mandan and the Hidatsa Members of the Archaeology Committee will present an introduction to each site we visit. Visit Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site and hike/explore the surrounding area. This site contains the remains of over 50 archaeological sites, including three Hidatsa villages central to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

www.nps.gov/knri

One of these villages, Awatixa, was the village where Sakakawea and her husband, trader Toussaint Charbonneau lived. These villages were later devastated by epidemics, especially an smallpox epidemic in 1837 which killed over half the population of many villages (80% death rate in some).

Drive on to the Fort Berthold Reservation. Prepare dinner and stay overnight in motel (kitchenettes very useful for indoor camp food preparation!) Note: due to a storm which hit us with high winds and sustained rain during the early morning of Friday, we made the decision to move to a motel on the MHA Reservation at New Town. June 9 was thus our last day of camping on the trip.

Visit the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara ) Musem in New Town. Receive a tour of the museum and orientation and presentation on the Garrison Dam and its impact on the Three Tribes by Marilyn Hudson. Hear talk on the Hidatsa identity of Sakakawea by Calvin Grinnell.

Drive to Beulah, ND for a final night’s stay in a motel.

Final report on Indian tribe (Cheyenne) presented in the motel by Laura.

Sunday, June 11 (Day 13)

Pack up and depart for the Twin Cities. Scheduled departure: 8 a.m. Actual departure: 8:17 a.m. Central Time (not bad!) [Sites we could have visited en route, but didn’t because everyone was anxious to get home: Fort Abraham Lincoln and Double-Ditch Indian Village and Huff Indian Village.]